It is well known that crops such as corn and soybeans grow best in soil that is loose, rich in nutrients, and free of debris. After a crop is harvested, the soil is often compacted, depleted of nutrients, and full of crop residue and other debris. To restore the soil to optimal conditions, the soil is often tilled immediately before planting. Tilling is also known as cultivating or plowing (also spelled “ploughing”). The soil may also be tilled immediately after harvest. The conventional method of tillage is to treat the entire field. More recently, it has become popular to treat only the narrow strips of soil that will contain the seed rows simultaneously as the seeds are planted. This method of tillage is commonly known as strip tillage or zone tillage. Strip tillage saves time and energy and reduces erosion.
Strip tillage is performed by driving a tractor through the field pulling a wheeled toolbar to which many multiple-function row implements are attached. The row implements are spaced apart to correspond to the seed rows that will be planted. A conventional multiple-function row implement contains a frame with a bracket for attachment to a toolbar. Attached to the frame are cleaning disks to clear crop residue and other debris, scoring disks (also known as colters or coulters) to break the surface of the ground, a knife attached to a shank to create a trench (also known as a furrow) in the soil into which the seeds are deposited if planting is being conducted, and closing disks to fill in the trench to create a raised berm where the trench had been formed. Many multiple-function row implements also contain one or more tamping wheels at the rear that tamp the berm to the desired density and cross section.
A variety of multiple-function row implements have been disclosed. For example, multiple-function row implements are disclosed in Roggenbuck et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,694, Aug. 2, 1994; Thompson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,125, May 28, 1996; Kovach et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,761,120, Jul. 13, 2004; Neudorf et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,213,523, May 8, 2007; and Ankenman, U.S. Pat. No. 7,866,270, Jan. 11, 2011. While these multiple-function row implements can clean, break the ground, create a trench, plant seeds, and fill the trench, results are not always ideal. In particular, the use of these implements on hard ground containing large lumps of dirt from the winter can result in excessive amounts of dirt being moved from the row. Accordingly, there is a demand for an implement that lightly tills (“freshens”) the strip of ground prior to the use of these multiple-function row implements.